AmateurRadio.com

The Tri-Lakes Monument Radio Association is offering an amateur radio license class that includes the Technician (beginner) license material and the General license material. You can pursue Technician, General, or both!

Starts March 1st

• Earn or upgrade your FCC Amateur Radio License.
Earn the FCC Technician license or upgrade to the FCC General license.
• Convenient online learning with personal assistance and demos.
• Learn to operate ham radio for emergency communications.
• Learn to use the many VHF/UHF FM radio repeaters in Colorado.
• License exam session included, all learning materials included.

Instruction:

• A 20-hour, paced course of study
• Initial session equipment demonstrations
• Student self-study with the Ham Radio School Technician or General License Course, includes eBook readings, Video instruction, Focused reviews and quizzes, Optional in-depth learning media, Practice exams
• One-on-one personalized support from a knowledgeable and experienced ham radio operator
• Regular review sessions for Q&A, extra help

Schedule:

• Introductory Session, In Person  Sat March 1, 1-4 pm Woodmoor Barn, Monument
• Zoom Instructional Review Sessions: Thursdays 7 to 8 pm
• FCC License Examination Sat March 29, 10:30 am Monument Library
• Get On the Air Session, In Person  Sat April 5, 1-4 pm Woodmoor Barn, Monument

Class registration fee:  $50 Technician or General  ($40 under age 18)
Register for Technician
Register for General

For questions, contact Bob Witte KØNR:  b[email protected]
Sponsored by the Tri-Lakes Monument Radio Association

The post Ham Radio License Class – Monument CO appeared first on The KØNR Radio Site.

The Technician Class License is the entry-level ham radio license in the USA. The next step up is the General Class License which provides operating privileges on the high-frequency bands. If you want to work the world with ham radio, you should seriously consider going for the General license.

The Tri-Lakes Monument Radio Association is offering a blended (online and in-person) license class to assist you in moving up to General. The class starts on Nov 6th and will have five sessions: two in-person sessions in Monument, CO plus three online sessions via Zoom.  The final session is in-person and includes the FCC exam. (Complete schedule listed below.)

The General License provides access to regional and worldwide communications on the HF bands via ionospheric skip, greatly expanding operational capabilities!

• Upgrade from Technician to General Class radio privileges
• Pass your FCC General Class amateur license exam Nov 20
• Live equipment demonstrations and activities
• Learn to operate on the HF bands, 10 Meters to 160 Meters
• Gain a deeper understanding of radio electronics and theory
• Take the next step with antennas, amplifiers, digital modes

The registration fee is $30 ($20 for those under 18 years of age). In addition, students must have the required study guide: HamRadioSchool.com General License Course,
Third Edition, effective 2019 – 2023, $24.95. A current FCC Technician License is required for registration.

More information and registration page here: https://w0tlm.com/radio-classes/general-registration
For questions, email: [email protected]

Schedule

Session 1, Sat Nov 6, 1-5 pm:  In-Person, Tri-Lakes Chamber of Commerce Meeting Room, Monument, CO. Ch.Ø-3 instruction

On-Demand Video Lesson (online video at your convenience).  Ch.4 instruction

Session 2, Tue Nov 9, 6-7 pm:  Live Zoom meeting.  Ch.1-4 review and Q&A

Session 3, Thur Nov 11, 6-8:15 pm:  Live Zoom meeting.  Ch.5 instruction

Session 4, Sat Nov 13, 1-5 pm:  Live Zoom meeting.  Ch.6 instruction

Session 5, Sat Nov 20, 1-5 pm:  In-Person, Tri-Lakes Chamber of Commerce Meeting Room, Monument, CO.  Wrap-up, review, VE Exam session.

The post Get Your General License, Colorado appeared first on The KØNR Radio Site.

The Technician Class License is the entry-level ham radio license in the USA. The next step up is the General Class License which provides operating privileges on the high-frequency bands. If you want to work the world with ham radio, you should seriously consider going for the General license.

The Tri-Lakes Monument Radio Association is offering a blended (online and in-person) license class to assist you in moving up to General. The class starts on Nov 6th and will have five sessions: two in-person sessions in Monument, CO plus three online sessions via Zoom.  The final session is in-person and includes the FCC exam. (Complete schedule listed below.)

The General License provides access to regional and worldwide communications on the HF bands via ionospheric skip, greatly expanding operational capabilities!

• Upgrade from Technician to General Class radio privileges
• Pass your FCC General Class amateur license exam Nov 20
• Live equipment demonstrations and activities
• Learn to operate on the HF bands, 10 Meters to 160 Meters
• Gain a deeper understanding of radio electronics and theory
• Take the next step with antennas, amplifiers, digital modes

The registration fee is $30 ($20 for those under 18 years of age). In addition, students must have the required study guide: HamRadioSchool.com General License Course,
Third Edition, effective 2019 – 2023, $24.95. A current FCC Technician License is required for registration.

More information and registration page here: https://w0tlm.com/radio-classes/general-registration
For questions, email: [email protected]

Schedule

Session 1, Sat Nov 6, 1-5 pm:  In-Person, Tri-Lakes Chamber of Commerce Meeting Room, Monument, CO. Ch.Ø-3 instruction

On-Demand Video Lesson (online video at your convenience).  Ch.4 instruction

Session 2, Tue Nov 9, 6-7 pm:  Live Zoom meeting.  Ch.1-4 review and Q&A

Session 3, Thur Nov 11, 6-8:15 pm:  Live Zoom meeting.  Ch.5 instruction

Session 4, Sat Nov 13, 1-5 pm:  Live Zoom meeting.  Ch.6 instruction

Session 5, Sat Nov 20, 1-5 pm:  In-Person, Tri-Lakes Chamber of Commerce Meeting Room, Monument, CO.  Wrap-up, review, VE Exam session.

The post Get Your General License, Colorado appeared first on The KØNR Radio Site.

Sat Sep 28 and Sat Oct 5
(8 AM to 5 PM)

Black Forest Fire Station
11445 Teachout Road
Colorado Springs, CO 80908

The General License provides access to regional and worldwide communications on the HF bands, greatly expanding your ham radio fun!

• Upgrade from Technician to General Class radio privileges
• Pass your FCC General Class amateur license exam Oct 12*
• See live equipment demonstrations and activities
• Learn to operate on the HF bands, 10 Meters to 160 Meters
• Gain a deeper understanding of radio electronics and theory
• Take the next step with antennas, amplifiers, digital modes

Registration fee: $30 ($20 for under 18 years of age)

Prerequisite: Students must already have their Technician License

The required study guide is:

HamRadioSchool.com General License Course
Third Edition, effective 2019 – 2023, $24.95

* Free FCC exam session on Oct 12 at Black Forest Fire Station 9:30 am.

To register for the class, contact Bob KØNR,  [email protected]

Sponsored by the Tri-Lakes Monument Radio Association

The post General License Class – Black Forest, CO appeared first on The KØNR Radio Site.

We’ve had a steady stream of new licensees come into our radio club driven mostly by our highly-successful Technician license class. Many of these licensees have gone on to get their General license so they can have fun on the HF bands. I’ve given advice and aid to a variety of people as they get their HF station set up and I’ve come to appreciate that for Average Joe Ham this is a big step. I’ve also noted some recurring problems that get in the way of success on the HF bands, which I’d like to explore here. Recently, I asked my twitter followers for input and got some great ideas from them, too. Thanks!

Here’s what I came up with as the four main barriers to success on HF.

Antenna restrictions

The first barrier that pops up are antenna restrictions which can come in the form of zoning regulations, protective covenants (homeowners associations), spouse’s opinion, potential objections from neighbors and your own sense of aesthetics.  Any of these can limit the type and size of antennas you can or will install. More to the point, this can be a showstopper for some folks. They may decide that they simply can’t have an HF antenna on their property.

Of course, HF antennas tend to be large due to the longer wavelengths used (compared to simple VHF antennas). But there are some compact antenna designs that use magnetic loops, loading coils, etc.

RFI

The second issue that often pops up is radio frequency interference (RFI) from sources such as power lines and consumer devices. These issues can be very frustrating because you have to do two things: identify the source of the noise and eliminate it. If the problem is power line noise, your local utility is supposed to be capable of finding and correcting the problem. Some are better than others. Consumer devices are a huge problem due to the common use of high-speed digital circuits. If the interfering device is in your home, that makes it a bit easier to deal with…if it’s somewhere in the neighborhood, then its harder to diagnose and fix.

My twitter followers mentioned that solar electric systems often radiate RF energy (and they are a growing trend). Here in Colorado, we are seeing more problems with cannabis grow operations that use RF-ugly industrial grow lights.  But Part 15 consumer electronics are a big and growing problem…too often they are little RFI generators.

Cost

I hesitate to add cost to the list but I do think it’s a factor. A starter HF station costs something like this (your mileage may vary): $750 for a new transceiver (think Yaesu FT-450 class), $100 for a power supply, $100 for wire antenna (homebrew) and coax => ~$1000.  Yes, you can buy used gear and get this cost down…maybe to half ($500)?

Comparing this to a Baofeng HT purchase ($30), it is a lot more money. However, it is on the same level as other significant consumer electronics purchases such as a high end smartphone or mid-range notebook PC. As someone correctly pointed out to me, the utility of a notebook PC is very clear…you will get value out of it…but success with HF is still a gamble. What if you spend $1k on an HF station and never have any success with it?

The post Getting on HF: The Fiddle Factor appeared first on The KØNR Radio Site.

Our radio club (Tri-Lakes Monument Radio Association) offers a 2-day Technician license class which has resulted in over 300 new Technician licenses in past years. We also offer a number of activities to help new licensees get started in ham radio. Still, we wonder how many of our newly-minted Techs have actually gotten on the air and are actively using amateur radio.

To assess that, I surveyed 258 people that went through our Technician license class from 2010 to 2017. We’ve actually had more students than that get their license but I don’t have valid email addresses for all of them. To improve the response rate, I kept the survey short at 5 questions.

The response rate was 42% which is quite good for this type of survey. I suspect there is a response bias in that active ham radio folks are probably more likely to reply to this survey. People that have lost interest are less likely to reply. That’s just my opinion; I don’t have data to support that.

Almost half of our Technician class students upgraded to General but only a few went on to Extra. Overall, I see this as a good result but I expected to see a few more Extra class licensees.

Most of the respondents have been on air recently: 60% of them have made a radio contact in the past 6 months. On the other hand, that means about 40% of not made a contact in half a year. It is disappointing to see that 13% have never made a ham radio contact.

There is quite a range on how active the respondents are with 45% making 10 or fewer contacts in 6 months.

About one half of the survey respondents are members of our radio club. Some of them are also members of other radio clubs in the area. Some of our students travel a long distance, up to 100 miles, to attend this class so it makes sense that they find a radio club near their home.

Most of the respondents reported being active on 2m/70cm FM. About 18% of them are on HF Phone. The total for all forms of HF operating (CW, digital and phone) is not shown on the chart but it is roughly 20%. While roughly half of the respondents have their General or Extra class license, only 20% are actually using the resulting HF privileges.

Conclusions

My broad conclusion is that our radio club should continue to provide opportunities for our members to develop their operating skills and expand their radio operating. I filtered the responses to our club members only to see if our club member responses are any different from the larger group. Basically, our members indicate they are somewhat more active than the rest of the respondents but the overall story does not change.

Obviously, this is a small slice of data relevant to our local situation. It may not apply to other parts of the country.

What do you think?

73, Bob K0NR

The post Are Recent Technicians Getting on the Air? appeared first on The KØNR Radio Site.

Sat Feb 24 and Sat Mar 3 (8 AM to 5 PM) 2018
Black Forest Fire Station

11445 Teachout Road

Colorado Springs, CO 80908

The General License provides access to regional and worldwide communications on the HF bands, greatly expanding your ham radio fun!

• Upgrade from Technician to General Class radio privileges
• Pass your FCC General Class amateur license exam Mar 10*
• Live equipment demonstrations and activities
• Learn to operate on the HF bands, 10 Meters to 160 Meters
• Gain a deeper understanding of radio electronics and theory
• Take the next step with antennas, amplifiers, digital modes

Registration fee: $30 ($20 for under 18 years of age)
Students must have the required study guide:

HamRadioSchool.com General License Course
Second Edition, effective 2015 – 2019, $22.95

* Free FCC exam session on Mar 10 at Black Forest Fire Station 9:30 am.

To register for the class, email: Bob KØNR  [email protected]

Sponsored by the Tri-Lakes Monument Radio Association

The post General License Class: Black Forest, CO Feb 24/Mar 3 appeared first on The KØNR Radio Site.